APSE contest

[hwkcrz1]

Have they announced the final two mandatory dates for the APSE contest? Thank you.

 

[SF_Express]

I'm not seeing that yet. I do see the web judging is done. Congrats to the winners. Interesting that all 60 mentions are newspaper websites -- not one non-newspaper site is named. Not sure what that means, and don't know what non-newspaper sites even entered.

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/winners-of-apses-2010-web-contest-announced

 

[MileHigh]

I'm not seeing that yet. I do see the web judging is done. Congrats to the winners. Interesting that all 60 mentions are newspaper websites -- not one non-newspaper site is named. Not sure what that means, and don't know what non-newspaper sites even entered.

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/winners-of-apses-2010-web-contest-announced

Noticed that as well. And lots of non-newspaper judges so I can't imagine they didn't enter.

 

[SF_Express]

Yeah, in fact, ALL of the big category judges were non-newspaper. I'm not sure what I think about the fact that not a single big non-newspaper website -- not one -- even merited honorable mention. Although even with the judges, maybe not many of them entered or something.

 

[SF_Express]

FYI: Sports websites not connected newspapers were NOT judged in the APSE over-2,000,000 category -- or anywhere else.

 

[Versatile]

It wouldn't be fair to judge Yahoo! Sports/ESPN.com/Fanhouse against WashingtonPost.com/sports. Totally different goals, audiences and decision making processes, whether or not that's a good thing.

 

[RustyHampton]

How do you judge a website.

 

[Moderator1]

Quality of content
Presentation
Ease of navigation

For starters

 

[MileHigh]

Final mandatories:

Sunday, Aug. 8
Thursday, Oct. 14

Previous mandatories:

Sunday, June 27
Monday, April 5

Entry deadline Jan. 25.

Judging Feb. 12-16 in Indianapolis.

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/final-mandatories-sunday-aug-8-and-thursday-oct-14/

 

[Condition Of Anonymity]

Two Sundays in the summer? WTF?

 

[I'll never tell]

We're not entering this year, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

Our paper didn't come across for the membership, and I'm not in the position where I can pay the dues. I know there are people on my staff that really live through awards, but even with that, I didn't feel like it was right to ask them to pony up money so the whole staff could enter (as I understand that as long as the sports editor is a member, the rest can enter.)

There'll be other contests we can enter. State and national organizations the paper does belong to for writers and designers.

And honestly, I don't think the paper has ever cared when we did win. In the past 10 years, we've taken home Top 10s (writing and sections) and even a triple crown once, and they basically said, "Meh. Put it in your section somewhere."

However, when we've won awards in the other contests, they've blown it up and gushed for days.

So, in one way I'm sad. In others, I'm not.

 

[Versatile]

I can happily say I didn't design the section on any of those days. My boss goes nuts about awards stuff and over thinks everything and stresses out and brings up old things. Once, he came back to a designer demanding to know "Why did you decide to box this centerpiece?" from a back issue about six months old. Turned out it was one of the required days for a contest.

Do these contests really achieve much? I don't think so. They just stress out management, which in turn stresses out the staff.

 

[Condition Of Anonymity]

I can happily say I didn't design the section on any of those days. My boss goes nuts about awards stuff and over thinks everything and stresses out and brings up old things. Once, he came back to a designer demanding to know "Why did you decide to box this centerpiece?" from a back issue about six months old. Turned out it was one of the required days for a contest.

That's pretty pathetic on your boss' part. There's nothing wrong with wanting to win awards -- it's a nice bit of recognition for the staff and it boosts morale in a business that doesn't have much back-patting these days. But being obsessed and crazy about awards is a lot different than simply hoping to win.

 

[esport12]

have they posted the PDF flyer with all the information on how to submit? I just took over recently at my shop, and I really don't know the first thing about submitting stuff.

 

[Rockbottom]

Final mandatories:

Sunday, Aug. 8
Thursday, Oct. 14

Previous mandatories:

Sunday, June 27
Monday, April 5

Entry deadline Jan. 25.

Judging Feb. 12-16 in Indianapolis.

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/final-mandatories-sunday-aug-8-and-thursday-oct-14/

That is going to gum up a LOT of southern newspapers that load up for college football Sunday sections ...

rb

 

[JBHawkEye]

The Sunday mandatory dates hurt us, too. The date in June was a day when most of our high school baseball and softball (since Iowa plays late May through July) was rained out. The August date was a little better — our Class A Midwest League team was home and we had a couple of local features.

 

[SF_Express]

Two Sundays in the summer? WTF?

Drawn randomly, if they still do it like they used to. Them's the breaks...

 

[JRoyal]

Two Sundays in the summer? WTF?

Drawn randomly, if they still do it like they used to. Them's the breaks...

That's my understanding. We've fared really well on the random days some years, not so well others. Being in a college market with no pro teams to cover during the summer means we load up on enterprise, but hit us on the wrong day during those months and we can be a little soft. Gotta make up for it with strong submissions for the other two days.

 

[SportsDude]

Quality of content
Presentation
Ease of navigation

For starters

Then how in the hell did the Cincinnati Enquirer get an honorable mention?

 

[Condition Of Anonymity]

Little help here... what exactly is an "explanatory" story? I always figured that it was kind of like a mini-project piece -- not quite the heft of a project, but still significantly deeper than a standard news or trend piece. But it says judges don't even read sidebars in that category, so it doesn't seem the right place for a multi-story package. Looking at the completely random stories that have won that category in the past, I have no idea what it is. Any idea?